In the wake of a major upswing in drownings up and down the Sierra due to the cold and heavy runoff from the record snowpack, emergency officials are pondering barring recreational use on the Lower Stanislaus River.

Editor's note: Manteca was incorporated as a city on May 28, 1918. In the year leading up to Manteca's centennial, the Bulletin will periodically publish stories about the city's history and the people who built the community. The following was part of a series that appeared in the Manteca Bulletin that Evelyn Prouty incorporated into her book "Manteca: Selected Chapters from its History."